It seems to me, though, that faithful Latter-day Saints won’t go too far wrong, and their lives won’t be seriously impoverished, by simply following the Word of Wisdom. I’m not even altogether sure — in fact, I doubt it rather strongly — that the sole purpose of Doctrine and Covenants 89 is enhanced health, although I’m confident that that is an important element in the results.
Coincidentally, I enjoyed a breakfast this morning of Bob’s Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli. I’ve liked müesli since the early days of my mission in Switzerland and, in one form or another, it and its close derivative, granola, are favorite choices of mine for breakfast.
A long-term morbidly obese man evangelising the health enhancing virtues of a temperance code of conduct is like listening to Donald Trump extolling the virtues of honouring one’s wedding vows.
1. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. 2. The best evidence for The Book of Mormon is eye witness testimony, therefore… 3.The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is a type of evidence that is notoriously unreliable.
Dan’s food addiction isn’t shamed in his religion. When he boasts about never tasting a drop of alcohol, I wonder what his reaction would be to someone criticizing his weight who has never gained a pound over their ideal BMI.
When he boasts about never tasting a drop of alcohol,
I think we can safely say that he has tasted many, many "drops" of alcohol. If he has ever eaten anything that was cooked with alcohol (beer-battered onion rings or fish and chips, for example), then he inevitably wound up ingesting some alcohol. It never winds up completely cooking off. It's yet another case where he winds up coming across like a complete rube on a topic that you'd think he would actually know a lot about.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
When he boasts about never tasting a drop of alcohol
It does say to eat meat sparingly. And wasn't it the Prophet Daniel (maybe Joseph?) who refused the spicy food a king offered him and insisted on plain food? That story always tied into the Word of Wisdom. It's the most facile obedience to steer clear of something you have no desire for anyway since you weren't brought up with it. The deeper lesson was never strictly about health or obedience, but cultivating a life of humility. Arrogantly prancing around the world eating the finest food while mingling with important people and then bragging about it at every opportunity is the apex of Babylonian idolatry. If he doesn't like to be called out for it, he shouldn't have published all those books by Hugh Nibley, because Nibley left behind a treasure trove of insights into phony discipleship and that's where I got most of my ideas.
You've always got to keep an eye peeled on that Saint who keeps minor tokens of obedience to the letter, like not drinking Coke or eating out on Sunday (and getting vocal about it), because that's an indulgence in advance to cover more serious sins that are far harder for the person to avoid.
Social distancing has likely already begun to flatten the curve...Continue to research good antivirals and vaccine candidates. Make everyone wear masks. -- J.D. Vance
For example, one member may choose not to eat grains, while another may avoid meat and focus on grains and fruits; as long as both are avoiding habit-forming substances, there shouldn't be any judgement among members about how each person is individually applying the Word of Wisdom. He also said members should never claim "moral superiority" with the Word of Wisdom, and it's naïve to point a finger at a person buying coffee or tea while buying a large soda themselves.
Peterson has made plenty of blog posts claiming the moral superiority with the Word of Wisdom. I’m sure he’s also had more than one large soda whilst doing so.
Bikman concluded by saying that as people modify their habits and improve their health, they'll be able to labor with all their might and with all the faculty of their soul.
“May we appreciate that our bodies can be a tool to help us develop divine attributes that prepare us for eternal progression,” he said.
I’m not convinced that eating more than is necessary is one of those divine attributes.
1. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. 2. The best evidence for The Book of Mormon is eye witness testimony, therefore… 3.The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is a type of evidence that is notoriously unreliable.
“DCP 2025” wrote:In this connection, I’ve recently been described over at the Peterson Obsession Board as being boastful about my superior righteousness on the grounds that I’ve never consumed alcoholic beverages. I don’t remember ever having bragged about not drinking — it strikes me as no very great moral achievement to have refrained from doing something that has never even slightly tempted me; I’ve also (praise be to me!) resisted being a serial killer, a Columbian drug lord, and an arsonist — but surely I must have done so. I’m sure that nobody over there at the Obsession Board would ever dream of misrepresenting me.
“DCP 2019” wrote:There is evidence that heredity can incline a person to chronic alcohol abuse. So, not knowing whether I myself might have been born with a genetic proclivity in that direction, I’ve always been quietly grateful that, when the time came for me to choose to drink or not to drink, I had already committed myself on religious grounds, with considerable support from my faith community, not to do so. I’ve never regretted the choice even slightly. I’ve never been tempted, at all, to go back on it. I don’t miss it.
Many years ago, when I first joined the faculty of Brigham Young University, I found myself speaking one day with a visiting professor, not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was teaching in another department. I asked him what struck him most about his teaching experience at BYU, and his answer surprised me just a little bit: He was astonished that his students were cheery and awake on Monday mornings. Back at his home campus, Monday morning classes were essentially a waste of time, he said, because his students were typically hung over from the weekend’s revels.
Maybe there's a self-congratulatory tone in those statements by Peterson, a bit of humble-brag. If the second one is a boast at all, though, it's a boast on behalf of studious BYU students, not for himself. I don't find the story implausible. I don't notice anything like this every week, but attendance at my Friday morning tutorials does drop dramatically a few times each semester when there was a big student party the night before, and a German TU is hardly a party school.
The first statement is implying that Peterson's sobriety has been a good thing in his life. Lots of people who used to have all too many sips of alcohol would agree with Peterson earnestly. He disavows credit for himself, and thanks his faith community for making alcohol unattractive.
So he hasn't had the same success in maintaining a healthy diet. Nobody's perfect. Why on Earth should a failure in one thing prevent anyone from celebrating success they have had? If only the perfect could ever rejoice in anything having gone well, no-one could ever be glad.
I got down to a healthy weight myself a few years ago, and have kept the weight off, by fasting two days a week. I'm a bit of an evangelist for this kind of intermittent fasting as a workable life hack, though I admit that it's easier if you have the freedom to arrange your own work schedule so that you don't have to make stressful decisions on fast days, or do much physical work. I wish Peterson and anyone else more success in slimming down. On the other hand I still have a tendency to let a couple of beers on weekend evenings turn into more than a couple, affecting my sleep and making me depressed the next day. I'm working on this, but so far I haven't found any good hacks for it. I can go dry for a month, or for Lent, but then the problem creeps back.
I'm afraid that accusing Peterson of hypocrisy every time he praises sobriety, just because he is overweight, looks a lot like the kind of body shaming that puts being overweight into a special category of super-sin like being a serial killer, such that fat people lose any right to utter anything but confessions of shame. That's absurd.
I do respect your good will here, Physics Guy, but I have to say this looks more like shaming the opposition than humble brag per se. The last quote makes that pretty clear, even if it really did happen. If the Afore types something and submits it to the web, chances are that the intent is to insult one or more critics out there.
Social distancing has likely already begun to flatten the curve...Continue to research good antivirals and vaccine candidates. Make everyone wear masks. -- J.D. Vance
Maybe there's a self-congratulatory tone in those statements by Peterson, a bit of humble-brag. If the second one is a boast at all, though, it's a boast on behalf of studious BYU students, not for himself. I don't find the story implausible. I don't notice anything like this every week, but attendance at my Friday morning tutorials does drop dramatically a few times each semester when there was a big student party the night before, and a German TU is hardly a party school.
The first statement is implying that Peterson's sobriety has been a good thing in his life. Lots of people who used to have all too many sips of alcohol would agree with Peterson earnestly. He disavows credit for himself, and thanks his faith community for making alcohol unattractive.
So he hasn't had the same success in maintaining a healthy diet. Nobody's perfect. Why on Earth should a failure in one thing prevent anyone from celebrating success they have had? If only the perfect could ever rejoice in anything having gone well, no-one could ever be glad.
I got down to a healthy weight myself a few years ago, and have kept the weight off, by fasting two days a week. I'm a bit of an evangelist for this kind of intermittent fasting as a workable life hack, though I admit that it's easier if you have the freedom to arrange your own work schedule so that you don't have to make stressful decisions on fast days, or do much physical work. I wish Peterson and anyone else more success in slimming down. On the other hand I still have a tendency to let a couple of beers on weekend evenings turn into more than a couple, affecting my sleep and making me depressed the next day. I'm working on this, but so far I haven't found any good hacks for it. I can go dry for a month, or for Lent, but then the problem creeps back.
I'm afraid that accusing Peterson of hypocrisy every time he praises sobriety, just because he is overweight, looks a lot like the kind of body shaming that puts being overweight into a special category of super-sin like being a serial killer, such that fat people lose any right to utter anything but confessions of shame. That's absurd.
Physics Guy, I appreciate the general drift of your comments here. I am not comfortable with fat shaming even if encouraging some to lose weight is a good thing. I am a bit perplexed about two day week fast. Sounds brutal. Do you mean water only 48 hours? Ok that is possible but might there be more pleasant ways to loose weight or is this fast something a person becomes acclimated to ?
I do respect your good will here, Physics Guy, but I have to say this looks more like shaming the opposition than humble brag per se. The last quote makes that pretty clear, even if it really did happen. If the Afore types something and submits it to the web, chances are that the intent is to insult one or more critics out there.
Sadly I have to agree here. But I do appreciate others trying to see it in the best possible light.
Dan is speaking in language I heard a lot in LDS circles. The message and intent is often understood differently within that context than outside it.
